use YAML; my @array = ( foo_name => " Bob Smiley ", foo_age => " 32" ); map_pairs { $a =~ s/foo_//; s/^\s+//, s/\s+$// for $b; } @array; print Dump \@array; my %hash = ( foo_name => " Bob Smiley ", foo_age => " 32" ); map_pairs { $a =~ s/foo_//; s/^\s+//, s/\s+$// for $b; } %hash; print Dump \%hash;